Intel to build its 3D XPoint production capacity in China

With the sale of its stake in the IM Flash joint-venture to Micron, Intel lost access to 3D XPoint manufacturing capacity. Until the chip giant has its in-house production, the firm will have to buy 3D XPoint chips from Micron. Now some more information emerged about the 3D XPoint plans from Intel, it seems the company will make this happen at its Fab 68 facility in Dalian, China.

AnandTech suggests this will be done at the expense of NAND flash memory capacity.

In fact, based on claims made by Intel’s CEO, it looks like the company is more than inclined to ramp up 3D XPoint/Optane memory at Fab 68 at the expense of 3D NAND volumes. Given the scale of the plant, using it for Optane would certainly help to drive costs of persistent memory down. However, it is hard to predict when and if Optane volumes could have an impact of 3D NAND volumes given all the differences between the two types of memory that span from process technologies to costs to applications.